Greenshore Center Book Series

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National Novel Writers Month is coming up in November and this is the time of the year where I like to start plotting out my goals for that month!

First off, although we are given a full month to complete our 50K word project, reality has proven (time and again) that this author really has about 25 days to make it happen. That works out to a clean 2,000 words a day to hit the goal.

(I aim for the 2,200 to plan for the burn-out / sickness / to-do-list days)

Secondly, This year is going to be different from other years. NaNoWriMo is a time for me to play around in new arenas. I try different genres, or new story arcs. This year I'm sticking to the Greenshore world. It's been too much fun plotting and writing out the first five books of the series and that is where my brain naturally goes to.

Third, in writing the Greenshore books, I've got Book 1 down to beta reader edits and Book 2 at a VERY rough draft of 27,000 words. My plan for NaNoWriMo is to hammer out Book…

Back from the madhouse that was Gencon 50. Sat in on some writing seminars, did some play testing, rolled about 8 BILLION dice, walked for miles and miles, ate pizza, etc.

Now I'm all recovered and ready to write.

I'm looking into some of the upcoming writing contests and I'm considering a few short stories that I've written to flesh out some of my Greenshore characters and plots. Many of the contests in question are around 2000 - 5000 words in length, which is a bit of a test for me.

Just keeping each of the Greenshore books in the 35,000 - 40,000 word range is a test...

However; today is the Writer's Block down at the library. Next week my daughter starts school. Summer is feeling like it is over and a strange aspect of renewal is in the air. September could be an interesting month!

Book 2 of the Greenshore series is written. Oh, it is rough and only at about 28,000 (of the projected 35,000) words; but it is also accompanied by a few short stories written for background development. All in all, I've hammered out over the 35k word goal this month and am pretty happy with the outcome.

Book 1 is in the hands of three folks whom I REALLY look forward to their feedback (the good, the bad, and the ugly). At the end of the day, I just hope they enjoyed the ride.

It's August now and the high heat of Summer is in full bloom. It's a little easer for me to huddle indoors these afternoons to play around with other writing tasks and expand on my Greenshore universe. That's the thing about this project: its still FUN to write. Speaking of which, I've begun to compile the various notebooks and electronic media into a single (offline) source.

Now that Greenshore has become a fleshed-out entity to me, I don't want to spend a lot of time fol…

It might be the sensation of crossing Summer's Zenith and seeing more of the warm days behind me than ahead, or it might be the 'to do plans' of the Summer become more crossed off than not, or the fact that Camp NaNoWriMo is in day 17; but I have been VERY aware of lost time as of late.

It's not a bad feeling. More of a 'did I do enough' melancholy and slight frustration meshed with the bliss of success.

I did kill off a couple of days this week trying to draw a map. Digitally. Never again (yah, right!)

I think that's what is really giving me the slow burn that I'm feeling.

Even writing on this blog feels like I'm not doing my job as a writer (to complete the current work). However; creeping out of my writer's hole is important to do... from time to time.

Anyway, eight chapters left to finish AND the intro hook stuff to hammer out (I leave chapter 1 or the preface for last. It's outlined, but never written out). I've had to re-write and …

I've hit the part of the book where the writing has taken off on it's own.

My subconscious must have been exposed to the plot and planning of this book enough to allow the characters to scamper off in the right directions. It's a lot of fun drilling deeper into the hints and teases of the first book. I've crossed the 17000 word count mark this week, but the words I've typed have been GOOD words. Very minimalistic sentences that expand the plot and / or characters. I've got the right supernatural elements doing the things they would do and the humans dealing as they should as well.

So far.

There's always this subtle fear that one or more of these non-existent beings will completely exit the reservation...

However, with that comes a deeper understanding of each character, not to mention expanding the world (and the potential for new plot lines for later books).

But it was one of those 'top 10 best writing weeks' kind of week. A plot-a-licious plot-y plot-plot-plot kind of week.

Last month, I wrote a short story that links the antagonists of Greenshores' Book I to Book II. This past week detailed the First Act arc in a second short story, allowing me to plum the depths of the antagonists even further than the general plotting allowed. Sure, I've got the characters detailed out and all of that. I've got Act I all mapped out in a chapter-by-chapter checklist. However, to do the 'walk a mile in their shoes' thing via a short story brings new expanses to the character (as well as some nifty plot devices that will further strengthen Book II and the act's overall arc.

I should elaborate on something. At the heart of Book II is a straight-forward murder mystery. This is a new genre for me.

Sort of.

I grew up on Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christy. My rainy Sundays usually had a …

Soooooo, I'm working on this second book in the Greenshore Series. Being an RPG gamer who enjoys sagas over one-shots, I'm used to the tandem thinking that goes into a personal development arc within a larger story arc. Unlike RPGs, there is no threat of player characters going rogue and taking off with the plot (or worse, leaving the game story arc behind and deciding to make the game something else).

However, it's ALL on the writer. When an RPG saga is 'working' and the player characters are into it, a wonderful synergy occurs that breathes life into the story and the meta-elements of the team. Unique ideas, unexpected sub-plots, each character with its own voice, and the rest of the laundry list of traits each player brings to the table. I have a deeply rooted fear that my characters either (1) all sound the same, or (2) are simple caricatures of the personality I am attempting to convey. The best fix for this fear this is Time: a scene with a cou…